Welfare State

After seeing communism collapse in its birthplace, the Soviet Union, the world shouldn`t be surprised to see the welfare state in retreat in Sweden, long the most admired exemplar of democratic socialism. Voters have handed the ruling Social Democrats their worst defeat in 60 years, giving them just 38 percent of the ballots cast. The vote suggests that something is wrong in the showplace of social democracy. What will replace the old order is not entirely clear. The five non-socialist...

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden's Social Democrats, once known for charging some of the world's highest taxes, will reverse the country's recent decline in taxes - but not by too much - if they win the general election in September. Opposition leader Stefan Lofven, head of the party that molded Sweden's famed cradle to grave welfare state, said he had no target for tax rises but Sweden now needed more funds to invest in social policies after years of cutting back taxes. ...

The governing Social Democrats, who have made Sweden a generous welfare state and the world's most highly taxed nation, have reached a crossroads and are taking a distinct turn toward the free market. As they celebrate their 100th anniversary, the Social Democrats now not only admit that the public will not accept higher taxes, but they also plan to cut income taxes sharply. After decades of ignoring complaints that stratospheric taxes were encouraging people to work less,...

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - To glimpse Swedish angst under its picture postcard prosperity, look no further than film director Lisa Ohlin, who has enjoyed years of tax cuts in an economy the envy of Europe. Homes in her Stockholm neighborhood cost around $1 million. But this leafy, well-heeled area is a microcosm of Sweden, where eyes are on a struggling school with strained finances, not enough teachers and poor results. Like many Swedes, Ohlin wants her cherished welfare state...

Britain pioneered a cradle-to-the-grave welfare system in 1948. It became a model for other European nations to follow, and for a long time it was a source of great national pride. A Labor government gave birth to it, but even Conservatives would not tamper with it when they were in power, except to try to make it better. The British system now provides extra money to your family when you are born, and it helps to bury you when you die. In the intervening years, it provides good...

LONDON (Reuters) - A descendant of King William IV and an alumnus of Britain's Eton College, British Prime Minister David Cameron has struggled to counter the charge he favors the interests of the wealthy minority into which he was born. An outspoken lawmaker in his own Conservative party has called him and his finance minister "two posh boys who don't know the price of milk", while opposition lawmakers and parts of the media have likened him to "Flashman", a fictional upper...

By David R. Henderson. and David R. Henderson is the John M. Olin visiting professor with the Center for the Study of American Business at Washington University in St. Louis. He is a classical liberal | September 18, 1994

Start with two self-evident principles. First, no one, not even a government, has the right to force anyone to pay for immigrants who want to come to the United States. Second, no one has the right to prevent people from escaping tyranny. Any system of laws, any system of government we devise, should adhere to these principles. The principles do not contradict each other. But defenders of the welfare state have forced us to choose which of these two principles we will follow.

For liberals, the long-term fiscal crisis should seem devastating. If entitlement programs continue to grow, they will soon crowd out almost all other government spending. Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein has pointed out that the federal government is now an insurance company with an army. This means that there will be little money left for programs to address income inequality, poverty, education, infrastructure, science and technology, research and all the other purposes of active, energetic government.

Medicare just celebrated its 30th birthday, but it looks frail and decrepit beyond its years. So Democrats and Republicans, forced to address its problems, are engaged in a spirited debate over which party is more likely to let Grandma rot in the gutter. The argument may be the most entertaining spectacle this side of a tractor pull, but we should not let it divert us from Medicare's valuable lessons about the defects of the modern welfare state. ...

In the recent election, Gov. Quinn was rejected by 97 out of 100 counties in Illinois. Yet, the Republican candidate Senator Brady recently lunched with Gov. Quinn in Chicago. The Brady supporters are the hardworking, generous people living outside of Cook County who don't want their tax money going into the corrupt, welfare state of Cook County. Yet, Brady is now playing footsies with Quinn. Is there any hope for Illinois? -- Jack Hughes, Chicago

By David Popenoe, professor of sociology at Rutgers; from an article in the Public Interest | February 10, 1991

Sweden has much to commend it. Its cities are clean, its countryside beautiful and its people healthy and long-lived. With no poverty, no slums and relatively little violent crime and drug abuse, Sweden has to a remarkable degree minimized the extent to which the economic luck of the draw determines the quality of people's lives. Yet there is one thing about growing up in Sweden today that should give pause even to those sympathetic to the welfare state. There is a strong likelihood that...

Neglected UIC The series "Clout goes to college" informs us of the actions that lawmakers have taken to obtain favorable admissions decisions to our state's most prestigious public university. In this situation, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign might seem to be a victim of its success -- such an outstanding institution that no other in the state can compare. What is not noted here is the decades-long policy to underfund the University of Illinois at Chicago. UIC is supposed to be a...

In her book Hillary Clinton calls for more social-engineering schemes. That there is scant evidence such programs work never deters the true believer. If truth-in-advertising laws applied, Mrs. Clinton's book would more accurately be titled, "It Takes a Welfare State."

MICHIGAN PUNISHED: Democratic leaders voted Saturday to strip Michigan of all its delegates to the national convention next year as punishment for scheduling an early presidential primary in violation of party rules. In spite of the vote, some party leaders and officials said they believed the delegates would eventually be seated at the convention. Michigan, with 156 delegates, has scheduled a Jan. 15 primary. Democratic Party rules prohibit states other than Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina from...

I read with interest your Feb. 5 editorial titled "Don't let ranchers get richer." With all of Congress' complaining about entitlement programs, giving away the nation's budget to the "welfare state," it's most interesting that one sacred cow is the protection of ranching interests. Once again, the environment takes a back seat while some especially wealthy Westerners are living off the generosity of the American people. How do our representatives justify this particular form of welfare?

"We," the finance minister says, "have a terrible past." She also says: "In a way, we've had it too easy." Christine Lagarde is correct on both counts. Her first "we" refers to Europe; the second, to France. Both Europe's cataclysms and France's comforts shape the context for reforms. Lagarde, 51, has a more informed affection for America than anyone who has ever risen so high in this country's government. She was an exchange student at a Washington prep school and a Capitol Hill...

"(Bill Clinton) would be a great frat president." "(Bob Dole) is the tax collector of the welfare state." "If the Soviet empire still existed, I'd be terrified. The fact is, we can afford a fairly ignorant presidency now." "We have to say to the counterculture: 'Nice try. You failed. You're wrong.'" --Newt Gingrich (From "Newtisms: The Wit and Wisdom of Newt Gingrich," compiled by Geoff Rodkey (Pocket Books).

By Clarence Page, a member of the Tribune's editorial board | April 23, 2006

Charles Murray, who is the sort of big-thinking, think-tank scholar that Washington's power elite listens to, has a new plan to reduce poverty, encourage work, fortify marriages, insure the uninsured, "replace the welfare state" and save money in the long run. I told you he was a big thinker. Unfortunately, his elegantly crafted and richly researched proposal, published by the conservative American Enterprise Institute as "In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State," ultimately reminds me...

I was not surprised to read that Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was allowed to appear on Soviet television where he preached "togetherness" with the Soviet Union. "Together we will make history or together we will end it," said the man from the Welfare State. Politicians and businessmen of his ilk have been playing "togetherness" with the Kremlin since the early days of Franklin D. Roosevelt's reign, whose administration saved Soviet Russia by recognition in 1933. In the name of "togetherness," Sen. Kennedy's party...

In France, an Ipsos poll asks adults in their early 20s, "What does globalization mean to you?" Forty-eight percent of the respondents answer, "Fear." And in a book titled "The Fearful Society," author Christophe Lambert describes a France plagued by "fear of the future, fear of losing, fear of others, fear of taking a risk, fear of solitude, fear of growing old." Lambert was writing as much of a continent as of a country. Consider: - A stagnant Italy is so factionally divided--witness this...